XI. First Impressions

🙞 1 September 1991 | King's Cross Station, London 🙜

🙞 Hermione Jean Granger | First-Year Student 🙜

Steam sizzled in the air, warming the cold ambience, and Hermione lost her breath for a brief second.

Hogwarts Express was a mesmerising sight, just as professor McGonagall had told her. Red in colour and rustic in design, no mere words could describe it. It was like it had frozen back in time, along with the first railroads built in England.

Excited, she whirled around, her chestnut hair whipping about like a whip.

Immediately, however, her happy expression fell. Her parents stood out like a sore thumb in the crowd of Wizards and Witches. Their smiles seemed forced, as if uncomfortable to be there.

The words died in her mouth, and she turned around again, subdued. Muttering a hasty goodbye, she pushed her trolley to the train, steps now uncertain.

Children of all ages crowded the platform, and she had difficulty boarding the train. To find an empty compartment was an even more challenging task.

A minute turned into two. Just as Hermione started to feel frustrated, however, her search finally came to an end.

"Do you mind?" She shyly asked, eyeing the blonde boy, "I couldn't find an empty compartment."

He stared at her, silent, his gaze strangely intense. She couldn't help but feel her anxiety worsen under the stare.

"I don't mind. Come in." And, just like that, he turned his eyes back to the book in his hands.

Hermione muttered a hasty thank you in response, entering inside the compartment. She took out her wand then, pointing it towards her trolley.

'You know the incantation, and the wand movements,' Hermione reassured herself.

"Gravitas Penna," she cast, and a sigh of relief escaped her lips as she tested the weight of her trolley. It was as light as a feather. It would be embarrassing to fail to cast a First-Year spell in front of someone else.

It didn't cross her mind that she had just started her magical education and shouldn't feel so pressured, but such was her nature.

She stole a glance at the boy as she put her trolley up. He wasn't even paying attention to her. The book seemed more interesting than her social anxiety. Before long, the room devolved into an awkward silence. Unlike her, though, the boy didn't seem even bothered by it.

"My name's Hermione," she stated, trying to break the ice, "Can I know yours?"

His amber eyes looked up, staring, "Konrad."

"Uhm... that's a German name, right?" She asked.

He merely nodded, not elaborating. Not sensing that he wanted to continue the conversation, Hermione awkwardly took a book out from her small purse and started reading.

🙞 Daphne Lenora Greengrass | First-Year Student 🙜

Her blue eyes merely observed, staring at her childhood acquaintances as they drifted off into the back of the train's aisle. Frustration reeled inside her, but her expression gave no hints of it.

They were moments away from the Hogwarts Express's departure, and yet they wanted to go on a mad chase for Harry Potter. It seemed to her that only Tracey still had the decency to stay behind.

"Excuse me," she eyed a boy and girl occupying a compartment, "May we enter?"

The girl flushed, broken out of her reading session, while the boy merely spared them a glance.

"No problem, come in." The boy nodded, speaking for the two of them. Then, he was back to reading his book, as simple as that.

Moments later, both Daphne and Tracey sat, each one on a different side of the compartment. Sitting beside the quiet boy, she couldn't help but glance at him with her blue eyes.

"My name is Daphne," "-and I'm Tracey", her friend added in, "May we know your names?" She asked.

"Hermione, nice to meet you." The girl was pleasantly polite, Daphne realised.

"Konrad."

The boy was - she frowned - to the point, to say the very least.

🙞 'Konrad Barak Schwarz' | First-Year Student 🙜

Soon enough, the relative silence that permeated the compartment came undone. Tracey, the girl with inky black hair and navy blue eyes, was quite talkative. Daphne was not so much, and Hermione seemed happy with being included in the conversation.

It didn't bother him. Listening in to their chat whilst he read proved surprisingly pleasant. Moreover, he discovered that all three of them were in his year. So, they might share classes in the future.

Suddenly, the sliding door opened, a rasping sound coming from it. Blonde hair adorned the face of the intruder, and a smug sneer seemed practically etched on the boy's cheeks.

"Let me guess..." Daphne drawled, a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "You couldn't find Harry Potter."

"No, he must have gone to Hogwarts already, ahead of the other First-Years." The ponce - the nickname felt suitable in his mind - stated in absolute confidence.

Then, his eyes drifted off from Daphne and Tracy to stare at the other two people in the compartment - namely, him and Hermione.

"You are?" An eyebrow of his rose as he asked.

"Hermione, nice to meet you."

"Konrad."

The answer didn't seem sufficient to the boy, "Your family's name?" He asked as if it couldn't have been more obvious.

"Ah- Hermione Granger-"

"Never heard of it." He waved his hand, dismissive.

"Are you serious, Daphne? I can understand a Half-Blood," he said, eyeing Tracey, "But consorting with a Mudblood? How far have the standards of the Greengrass have fallen?"

Harry noticed a brief flash of contempt flick through Daphne's face, no one the wiser. On the other hand, Tracy openly gasped at the slur. An emotion, one that lurked deep inside, flared in Harry as he remembered the true story behind his parents' demise. He, however, showed no outward signs.

"What about you?" The ponce then asked Harry, oblivious to the effect of his words, "Are you one too?"

"No."

"Ah- then what is the name of-"

"Konrad." He interrupted, enjoying the fluster it brought to the ponce's face.

"I know! I'm asking-"

"It's only Konrad. For you." Harry stated, staring down at the boy, even though he physically couldn't from a sitting position.

The fluster swiftly turned purple, and it instantly reminded Harry of Vernon and Dudley. Now that he thought about it, they were very similar, except that his relatives didn't have magic.

"Don't you know who I am?" Harry raised an eyebrow at that, was he supposed to? "I'm Draco Malfoy, and-"

The door slid close on the boy's face, and he fell to the aisle's ground in fright. Surprise marred his face as if that shouldn't be possible. Then, getting up, the ponce tried to open the door - probably to spew more of his drivel - but the door didn't budge even one inch.

Purple turned into pale white, a new one to Harry, and the boy stormed away. Two boys - who Harry hadn't noticed until then - followed suit.

"That was wicked!" Tracy was the first to react, her navy blue eyes sparkling.

The other two didn't seem as enthusiastic, however. Daphne was at a crossroads, her expression hiding a hint of doubt. Hermione merely looked aghast.

"Can you perform Wandless magic?" Daphne asked, ignoring the doubt that niggled at her mind.

"What?" Harry asked, bewildered, "Of course not."

Before she could question him any further, he gestured towards the wand discreetly held in his right hand.

"Hard to see it in the heat of the moment," he explained.

It was a lie, of course. That was no wand. It was a piece of wood he fashioned to look like one, but she didn't need to know that.

It didn't, however, escape her notice that he had never said any incantations.